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Bushra Ansari isn’t happy with the way Firdous Jamal is talking about his colleagues from the industry and she isn’t going to mince words about it.

In a vlog posted on Sunday, the actor made her distaste for Jamal’s comments clear and told him they were inappropriate and out of line.

Ansari said it was her firm belief that it was “difficult to find a mediocre actor” in Pakistan’s entertainment industry, but she wouldn’t announce it to the world even if she did find one.

She said the job of correcting actors and telling them how to perform fell on their directors and “insulting your colleagues on their craft, that too on social media, is highly inappropriate”.

Without taking his name and referring to him as “an accomplished actor”, Ansari said Jamal calling other senior actors “selfish”, “showpiece” and “mediocre” did not suit him and she would never make similar comments about his own work — even if it wasn’t up to par.

The Dekh Zara Pyar Se star said it was common courtesy not to speak ill of the dead. “That applies to all people, but to berate an artist after he has left the mortal realm? Someone saying something I can’t even repeat about Talat Hussain; or saying Abid [Ali] was selfish; or that Shafi [Muhammad] was of little use; or that Khayyam Sarhadi couldn’t speak well; that Rahat Kazmi, may God keep him safe, was a showpiece, this is very bad.”

She asked Jamal to be careful what example he is setting for the next generation. “This is the height of bad manners and it’s what you’re passing down to the next generation. When you pass away, or I do, the kids will dig up our corpses and insult us, saying, ‘What did these fossils know, they acted so high and mighty when they were alive. They only knew to act in one tone.’ Who knows what people will say, don’t encourage such things.”

Ansari said the actor was a better than she was, but he didn’t seem to be doing alright. “I don’t think he’s okay. He’s been through cancer, may God give him health, but I feel like his medications have made him forget how be respectful.”

She asked him to consider the impact his words have on people, “Think of how Abid Ali’s daughters feel and his wife. Think of Talat Hussain… his children must be feeling terrible. Shafi’s son… think of how he feels. You spoke about Rahat Kazmi, think about how his son feels. What are you saying… Get a hold of yourself, please, get some rest.”

Ansari also had something to say about podcasts and how everyone seems to have one nowadays. She said she had only ever appeared on one — and only because it was hosted by Ahmed Ali Butt and she was friends with his grandmother — but she knew a thing or two about interviews from her own time in the field.

She said people had forgotten how to be respectful on podcasts and interviewers back in her day like Khushbakht Shujaat, Obaidullah Baig, Mehtab Rashdi and Tariq Aziz had class and respect for their guests.

Jamal was a guest on The Yazziastic Show on April 20, when he made the disparaging comments about his contemporaries and colleagues. He said Ali was a “type actor” and “selfish”, while calling Hussain “monotonous” and reliant on “cheap theatricalities”. Sarhadi, he said, was “difficult to understand” and lacked the finesse of a trained artist.

He had praise for Qavi Khan, but that was about it. He said Kazmi was more of a “showpiece” than an actor. He called Shujaat Hashmi “self centred” and said Muhammad lacked in craft.

This not the first time the senior actor has gotten into trouble for his public comments. His comments about Mahira Khan in 2019 caused an uproar in the industry and were condemned by all quarters as ageist and sexist.

The matter reached an unprecedented height when Momina Duraid announced her production company MD Productions “will not work with him again in any capacity because of his sexist, regressive and discriminatory attitude”.